The Hope men's basketball team has battled injuries all season, but the Flying Dutchmen are now healthy as they head into the division three NCAA tournament.
Hope (19-9) rallied to win the MIAA tournament last week, winning three games in three days culminating with a win over rival Calvin on Saturday.
"The feeling of winning a conference championship will never get old," Flying Dutchmen senior guard Clayton Dykehouse said. "I think we're a little more focused this year and it's just as exciting but we have expectations to come in and compete this weekend. We're not ready to be done playing together."
Evan Thomas was the MIAA's MVP in 2022, but the senior battled a couple different injuries this season.
Thomas is now back and averaging 14.8 points per game the in the team's last five contests.
"It's tremendous for you to use the world healthy and our team in the same sentence," 9th year Hope head coach Greg Mitchell said. "It's comical because it's been really challenging. This is the healthiest we've been and that makes a big difference for us. Especially when our leader, ET (Evan Thomas) has had such an interesting year and now he's back to being really confident and physical. I think it feels like we're playing with all bullets in the chamber."
Hope opens the tournament against Bethany Lutheran at 5:35 p.m. on Friday at Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
